Mediaite calls Megyn Kelly ‘racist and factually incorrect’ over Kamala jab — there’s a problem with the fact-check

by Daily BS Wire

BS BULLETIN:

Megyn Kelly mocked Kamala Harris for what Kelly called a “blaccent” during a recent appearance before the NAACP in Detroit.
Mediaite branded Kelly’s comments “racist and factually incorrect” in an opinion piece.

Megyn Kelly heard Kamala Harris’ latest public appearance and had a question.

“What’s with the blaccent?”

Mediaite heard Megyn Kelly’s question and apparently had an answer.

Racist.

The outlet published an opinion piece Monday under the headline:

“‘What’s With the Blaccent?’ Megyn Kelly Offers Racist and Factually Incorrect Kamala Harris Imitation.”

That’s quite a two-fer.

But if you’re going to put “factually incorrect” in the headline, it helps to get the facts right.

Kelly was discussing Harris’ recent appearance at an NAACP event in Detroit, where the former vice president’s delivery drew considerable attention online.

Critics said Harris sounded noticeably different from her usual speaking voice.

Kelly agreed.

“Honestly, we’ve heard her talk a million times and she doesn’t talk like that.”

Kelly accused Harris of deliberately changing her delivery for a Black audience and then brought up an episode from the 2024 presidential campaign.

“Her Black — we all know the barbershop didn’t even believe she was Black, right? Those Black guys during the campaign were like, ‘She’s not Black, she’s Indian.’”

Mediaite went after that claim too.

The problem?

There really was a barbershop.

And there really were Black men saying essentially that.

During the 2024 campaign, a local CBS reporter visited a Pennsylvania barbershop and asked a group of Black men about Harris.

One man interrupted the political discussion with a question for the group:

Was Kamala Harris Black?

One answered that he’d let Harris speak for herself, but added:

“To me, no.”

Another said he shared that view.

Another said he’d heard Harris wasn’t Black and described her as half Black and half Asian.

CNN later aired the exchange nationally.

Harris was born to a Jamaican father and an Indian mother and has publicly identified with both her Black and Indian heritage for decades.

But Kelly didn’t hallucinate the barbershop conversation. It happened.

There is also a legitimate debate underneath the broader argument over Harris’ speaking style.

People routinely alter their cadence, vocabulary and delivery depending on their audience — a phenomenon often described as code-switching.

Harris’ defenders argue that’s precisely what critics are hearing and that treating it as somehow illegitimate ignores something common among Americans who move between different cultural and professional settings.

Kelly’s argument is different.

She thinks Harris’ shifts sound affected rather than natural.

That’s an opinion.

Mediaite thinks Kelly’s criticism is racist.

That’s an opinion too.

But whether a group of Black men sat in a Pennsylvania barbershop during the 2024 campaign and questioned Harris’ racial identity isn’t an opinion.

There’s video.